


Without Young, or the Curious Fanon of Pen-Neth

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Critical Essay, Other - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 09:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4215895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The phrase 'pen-neth' has become pervasive in fan fiction.  Intended to mean 'young one', it in fact has the opposite meaning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Without Young, or the Curious Fanon of Pen-Neth

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

For many of us, the appeal of Tolkien lies in a shared love of language - we understand that his invented languages came first and that the stories evolved to give them life. He delighted in the making of his languages, frequently revisiting and revising them, and often indulged in discourses mimicking those he had composed for real languages. Thus, it should not surprise us that a word formulated in one era of his thought should return later with another meaning and entirely new etymology. Such is the case with _pen_.  
  
The oldest example of _pen_ appears in _Lord of the Rings_ as _ben-adar_ 'fatherless' ( _pen_ is lenited to _ben_ as part of a prepositional phrase that functions as an adjective):

>   
> _Iarwain Ben-adar, we called him, oldest and fatherless._ (1)

However, Tolkien reinvented the word (probably forgetting that he had previously used it to mean 'without') in a later composition. In 'Quendi and Eldar' (dated 1959-1960), _pen_ resurfaces as a derivative of KWEN, and has the meaning 'one'. This is no doubt the source of the phrase _pen-neth_ 'young one' that is often found in fan fiction. However, Tolkien's examples show this incarnation of _pen_ as a suffix, not a prefix.

It was no whim that placed _pen_ as a prefix in the first case and a suffix in the second. 'Without' is a preposition and Sindarin does not leave prepositions dangling at the end of a phrase or sentence. In fact, the Sindarin preposition is more likely to become part of the word that follows it:

>   
> _Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!_ ( _ammen_ 'for us' is composed of _an_ 'for', which becomes _am_ before _men_ 'we', according to rules of Sindarin phonology) (2)  
>   
>  _le nallon sí di-nguruthos_ ( _di-nguruthos_ 'under the shadow of death') (3)

The syntax of 'one' is more complex. In Sindarin, nouns usually follow the adjective, and this is undoubtedly the root of the confusion - one would expect _pen neth_ , literally translated as 'one young'. However, _pen_ is an exception, as Tolkien explains:

>   
> _Derivatives of *KWEN were limited to the sense: pronominal 'one, somebody, anybody' and to a few old compounds that survived... ._  
>   
>  _As a pronoun, usually enclitic, the form_ pen _, mutated_ ben _, survived. A few compounds survived, such as_ rochben _'rider' (m. or f.),_ orodben _'a mountaineer' or 'one living in the mountains',_ arphen _'a noble'._ (4)

In the first paragraph, it would seem that _pen_ as an affix is limited to compounds, and a separate pronoun, 'one' remains that would presumably precede the adjective (as would other pronouns). In the second paragraph, Tolkien clarifies that indeed, both the pronoun and compounded affix exist. However, the pronoun is _enclitic_ , defined in the _Oxford English Dictionary_ as follows:

> Designating a word so unemphatic as to be pronounced as if part of the preceding word, and sometimes attached to it (5)

Thus, in practice, though the pronoun remains a word in itself, it has become more suffix than stand-alone pronoun. As an enclitic, _pen_ would most likely yield words similar to the compounds given by Tolkien in the above excerpt: _nethben_ ; _tithemben_ (from _tithen_ 'little' - _np_ becomes _mb_ in compound); _gaerphen_ 'dreadful one'; _gorben_ (from _gorn_ 'impetuous' - _rnp_ becomes _rb_ in compound).

In conclusion, it is fair to assume that _pen-neth_ and its variants are unlikely, being a combination of the syntax of the first instance of _pen_ and the meaning of the second. Nothing published by Tolkien during his lifetime proves that _pen_ can mean 'one', but a posthumously edited and published essay not only attests to this connotation but also describes its usage. That work implies that _pen_ should in this case be attached as a suffix. As for the employment of _pen_ as a hyphenated prefix, _Lord of the Rings_ gives both example and definition. If _pen-adar_ means 'fatherless', then the meaning of _pen-neth_ must follow in kind. A host of fictional Elves would be most grateful if we ceased to call them 'youthless'. (6)

* * *

  
(1) _LOTR_ , Book II Chap 2 p 258, pub Houghton Mifflin  
  
(2) _Ibid_ , Book II Chap 4 p 299  
  
(3) _Ibid_ , Book IV Chap 10 p 712  
  
(4) _The War of the Jewels_ , 'Quendi and Eldar' p 376 pub Houghton Mifflin  
  
(5) _The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_ , 5th Ed, Oxford University Press 2002  
  
(6) Additional sources consulted: David Salo, _A Gateway to Sindarin_ , University of Utah Press 2004; Helge Fauskanger, [**Ardalambion**](http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/), 'Sindarin: The Noble Tongue'.


End file.
